INTERVIEW: ZOOFAN

The pop-indie duo provided the soundtrack to our summer and as we were sat sunning ourselves to their latest single West Coast, we began wondering why they were such big fans of zoos…

How do you guys know each other and when did you start creating music together?

We go all the way back to school with a 10 year hiatus before we crossed paths again in a grimy gig venue in Brixton. A few beers later and conversation that sounded like we were trying to pull of a bank heist we decided to start a band – enter ZOOFAN.

Are you fans of zoos? If not, how did you come up with the name for the band?

Although it’s not what inspired the name we are lovers of the Zoo and wildlife conservation. The name originated from the attempt of writing a children’s book called “Going With The Zoofan” that was going to illustrated by Alxndra Cook. Even though this project never got completed the word Zoofan always stuck in my head and I wanted to use it as a band name. Maybe a revisit to the book will help get an album name.

Having played London and Paris fashion weeks, is fashion another creative outlet for you?

I believe that fashion can be a extension of yourself, whether you’re are dressing to express or to be apart of subculture it’s always underlined with a certain uniqueness. You have to get dressed everyday, so why not get creative with it. Roll the sleeves up, dye your hair, make it yourself or cut holes in the store bought. If it makes you feel good then your doing you…

Do you both have different musical influences which you draw inspiration from?

The two of us draw our musical influences from very different styles of music and we feel this gives us the flexibility to remain broad and open minded with the direction of each track. It’s nice because we can each bring different sounds to the table and have the confidence to trust each other’s intuition and musical instinct.

What’s your creative process for when you do sit down to write a song?

The process is forever changing. We like it that way as it opens us up to draw inspiration from different sources. Sometimes we will just start with a nice pulsing synth and a simple beat, this is always ends up more experimental with sound as its feels more like a jam session. Other times one of us comes in with a very clear concept for a song, this is drawn up from a watching a film or reading an article and we feel we would like to tell this story too. There is no right way to get creative and trying different ways gets different results.

Your sound so far has been the perfect soundtrack to the summer, are your personalities as sunny as your music?

Thank you, this is the main reason we make our music. We set out from the get go to try and make something that reminded us of sitting by the beach before heading back to the city. Personality wise we are both pretty chill but that depends on how hungry we get, that’s the only time the dynamic is out the window. Food first then thought, as long as we abide by that rule then the morale keeps tidy.

As a band that has started out recently, do you think the music industry is now harder to navigate, or is it easier to get noticed due to social media etc?

There are major positives to the social media boom, there’s less reliance on others getting your music heard for you and you can guide your own path through the industry. Saying that it’s very difficult to break out still, as a listener the whole world of music is in your front room but as and artist the whole world of music trying to get that listener to hear you.

It’s been a pretty busy year so far for you both with the EP and single releases, what’s the plan for the rest of 2018?

Yeah it’s been busy in such a positive way for us so far. We have two of our biggest shows to date coming up supporting the brilliant Alice Merton, a headline show on the 3rd of october and we are currently writing and recording the follow up Ep set to be released later this year. The main plan is to keep writing music and the balance of life and leisure.